Having nothing but issues with the 4870's in my R2...

I got my R2 yesterday, and as happy as I was to finally get it, the 4870's have been nothing but a constant source of frustration.

With stock drivers, I fired Crysis up, maxxed everything but AA, and saw unplayable framerates and crazy graphical glitches (the clouds in the sky were blinking/objects/trees in distance were clipping randomly).

Okay I thought, driver issue, so I followed the advice of the other thread and followed the steps to mobility mod the 9.12 drivers. I used drivercleaner and completely rid my computer of the old drivers in accordance to the steps in the other thread, and installed what I thought were the 9.12 drivers.

However upon checking DXDIAG, it still displays me using the 8.68 drivers, even though they were completely deleted off my system...How is that possible?

Second, after "installing" the new drivers, framerates in Crysis were actually worse, still with the glitches happening constantly.

Now I know next to nothing about Xfire, but I have that little box checked for "enable crossfire" in the catalyst control center, but it sure seems like I only have one card firing right now, if that.

Secondly, what would be causing all the glitches? Bad cards? Please understand my frustration, I just spent $4,000 on a laptop, I expect the damn thing to run properly AND Dell already frigged my order up by not Raiding my drives as it details in the order status (not like I "forgot" to check the option).

I hate the fact that I feel like I have to morph into an engineer to get my system to run properly, because honestly I don't know all that much about this stuff and how to troubleshoot these issues.

 

oh boy.. you make me heart attack now.. i decided to order R2 for me - but it seems need some observations before purshase

 

I am not an expert like you, but did try and disable xfire and run it on a single card. Also can you post Temp of both cards in xfire it might give some indications

 

Yea, I ordered a raided system, and it wasn't raided.
?

 

No need to hurry, дружище Let's wait till the first month of benching/testing is over. I rushed with the R1 and it hit me hard.
Will be more cautious now.

As for the issue:
It's fine. The drivers are probably need to be installed with the latest MODDER and it should be fine. Maybe the CF cable needs to be reseated or one of the GPUs replaced, but that doesn't mean the ATIs are bad or the system is faulty.

 

Wish that would be the worst case with the system, hehe.
You are lucky! Enter the BIOS and turn it ON.

 

I already put stuff on both . Its OK, I don't think its very safe to have raid on a laptop.

 

lol, i also think i must be patient, comrade but all these conversation about rgb led drive me mad lol i must be strong, not to tempt just wait

 

I think I might have the same problem, but I don't have the game and am using the demo, and I cant patch the demo..
If I DO have the same problem, I think it is more than coincidence that we BOTH have un-raided drives and these problems.
Wish there was a way I can play the full game to test it..

 

Anything I should do to troubleshoot this? Sorry for the noob question but how do I check gpu temps? Third party program?

Also, if its a cooling issue id be surprised, id like to think Alienware is capable of building a properly cooled gaming machine.

 

I tried Crysis before and after the patch. Ran better after the patch, but still was far from unplayable before patch.

 

GPU-Z- Temps:

I have bioshock installing in the background though.
EDIT: If both of us have this problem, its probably a driver issue.

 

try everest to see current temps - it seems hwmonitor doesn't work for ati.. or use hwinfo32

 

If I was in your place I will download gpu-z, just google it, then run it in the background and tick the box to log the data to a file, open your game and play, when u finish open the log file and see the temps of both cards. Also to make it easier to troubleshoot start by disabling xfire and run the game on just one card and see how it performs. I am no expert though but that what would I do.

 

I'll install a couple of other games and see how they work.
Can someone else with a R2 check this out please?

 

See if this helps any:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=423170&page=159

 

Your second card may be bad. I'd call Dell and ask for assisstance.

 

Before switching to 9.12 mobile modded drivers bioshock wouldn't start.
Now it plays.
But it still flickers in the sky and trees.
...
Also, in CCC it says
Driver Packaging Version 8.682.2-091214a-092914E
is that 9.12 because thats what the driver I downloaded says.

Edit: If I run crysis in a window the flickering is gone.

 

... If I disable crossfire then it works fine.
Thanks to dellienware for using faulty parts. This is just great.

 

Sounds like a faulty second card. Read on here other day someone with a similar problem found buzzing on the second card when he enabled xfire. Dell sent a replacement card immediately.

 

Yes there is buzzing, but I don't know how to replace the card..

 

OK great you have confirmed a faulty second card. Call dell tech support and get them to send a engineer out with a new replacement card.DO NOT touch the machine. Just give tech support a call and they will solve it.

 

These steps are the correct ones to install new drivers

If you open up catalyst control center in windows it should say 9.12 at the driver information page such as here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=42902&d=1262705113

If yours looks different then something went wrong in your process of driver installation.

If you tried everything but cannot get it sorted, then call Dell and have them replace your cards.

 

Its not a driver problem, faulty second card. He needs to call tech support and get a replacement card shipped. The engineer will fit it for you brandon

 

There was no talks of buzzing sound when i took the liberty of searching for info on how to update drivers and how CCC should look like with 9.12 .

He is gonna want to do these steps eventually anyways when his cards are not faulty !

Good luck brandon hope Dell fixes it fast for you!

 

That's the guide I used to install them.
This is what it says:

I'm pretty sure everyone is tired of alienware's problems with faulty BIOS's and dpc latency and stuttering.

It only buzzes when playing Crysis.

 

Brandon go call techsupport and tell them about the buzzing on the second card. Its not driver related.

 

I will. I wish there was a way to check if both cards are faulty though.
Also, its not really a buzzing sound, more like a high pitched sucking sound, it DOES do it when crossfire is disabled, and only when crysis is played.

 

In this case, Dell will send two cards for replacement.

 

Wait.
If you have enough skills - open the system, get to the GPUs and re-seat the Cross FireX cable. It should work. Worth a try anyway.

 

I don't think I got the skills. They failed to RAID my hard drives and possibly sent me faulty graphics cards or failed to place them properly, I'm going to let them handle it.

 

4870 xf is not powerful enough to run Crysis maxed. I would not hold that against your system. There no laptop right now that can do that (the desktop 5870 is the first desktop card that can).

 

Flickering still happens even if I put the resolution on 1024x768 no AA, and doesn't happen if you disable crossfire.

 

Yeah, thats an issue - Aikimox idea of the xf cable being loose might be the cause of the buzz and flicker.

here is what it takes to max out Crysis (I would have left AA off to get another 5-6 fps):
http://hardocp.com/article/2009/10/25/asus_eah5870_video_card_review/8

 

Can you direct me to a guide to reseat the cable?
From what I understand I shouldn't have to reseat the graphics card so I don't have to fiddle around TOO much right?

 

and what mobility now could be compared with desktop 5870? =))

 

the 4870 in Xfire is within 3k of the desktop 5870 and equal to the desktop 5850

 

Have you edited the crysis configurations? I noticed when I turned off texture streaming that I got flickering...

 

No, but im playing the demo. maybe that is it?

 

it could be, have you tried any other games? do they have flickering as well? i am still waiting on my MX17r2 and i would really be bombed out if it flickers, so i know how u r feeling right now.

on a bright note, my desk top i had for 2 + years now, runs a quad core and 8800GT in SLI, 4 gigs of ram ect ect.
When i play crysis i get no flickering on that. BUT when i played call of duty 5, i had alot of flickering near waters. however call of duty 5 is the only game that flickered for me.

So i am hoping crysis is the only game that flickers for you as well

 

Thanks for the information guys. I work full time and have class, so I have very little time to spend testing and troubleshooting until most likely Friday. This is being typed from my phone, but I will see what can be done to resolve the issue.

Note: Crysis on high at 1024 by 7xx resplution, no aa, is unplayable with glitches and fps under 20.

If I can't pinpoint a problem, I guess ill be calling Dell. Thanks guys.

The primary point of my topic was just for all you guys who are receiving the R2 to make sure and scrutinize your video cards upon arrival, because there's definitely an issue with mine, and apparently others.

 

uh-oh bug.

My results:
4870XF + Cat 9.12 + Borderlands = flickering every 10 seconds or so.
4870 + Cat 9.12 + Borderlands = no flickering
4870XF + Dell OEM driver + Borderlands = flickering every 10 seconds or so.
4870 + Dell OEM driver + Borderlands = no flickering

 

Does the stuttering affect the whole display while playing crysis? or just some of the objects that apear over the landscape? i.e Trees, rocks..etc?
Edit.... I guess it isnt the lack of the crymod patch then..

 

In Borderlands the whole screen flickers.

 

Damn.. so far the R2 seemed to good to be true...
Hopefully its a simple fix to get the CF functioning properly..

 

Here is a video of the problem. Screen flickers twice, once at 6 and again at 24.

Sorry for my shaky hand.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nyZChVGFq50&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nyZChVGFq50&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"</embed></object>

 

Wondering if this is a 920+4870XF issue. Can others with a different proc test?

 

Its probably a driver bug.

 

Happens with two different drivers.

 

Have you tried it without OC'ing? The 920 likes the juice when OC'ed and turbo-ed.